Thursday, September 22, 2011

It’s a question I hear often in my travels, where almost
everyone has heard of “the cloud” and many have since become interested. However, as with all new technology trends,
it’s not an easy jump and people want the reassurance that they’re not jumping
the gun in doing so.

However, for this article, I just want to focus on defining
“the cloud” which I think is where most the confusion starts. I could make a pun about things being
“cloudy” but I won’t sink that low and insult your intelligence. So, in short, I split “the cloud” into two
different categories. There can be an
overlap of these as well, so it can’t get a little gray (see, another possible
cloud pun) as companies utilize a mixture of both which is becoming more and
more common.

Web-based
applications: There are the
completely web-based applications where most would like to go to but is quite
honestly unrealistic for most at this time.This is only because the applications needed by most companies are not
truly web based yet.There are CRM
packages like Zoho, Sugar, SalesForce.com, hosted MS CRM, etc., even office
applications like Google Apps, and QuickBooks Online or Xero for
accounting.However, to utilize
everything as a web based application where all of your data is hosted
somewhere “up there” is pretty cutting edge, even for those that live on the
cutting edge.The hardware savings are
immense here as no servers are needed, only good workstations with a solid
internet connection. There’s of course a
cost for the applications, but it all evens out when you consider hardware
costs for server and the support team.

Hosted
Server Applications: So, there
is the other “cloud” – the one where we outsource our server hosting, our
internal IT support, and your backup strategies, many times renting space in a
“server farm” in that you have your server based applications hosted elsewhere
and you use Citrix or Remote Desktop Services to connect to your virtual
desktop.It’s a nice system actually and
when done right can really be smooth to your users.This is an ideal situation for those that use
client/server applications but want to stop having to worry about their own
servers or supporting those servers.Many times the costs of a hosted system are far lower than monthly IT
support, server upkeep, and workstations (a hosted environment does not
necessarily need a powerful desktop to remote into the environment).On top of that, what’s the value of just
knowing that your server is in a secure location, being backed up by the
experts, watched by a solid IT team, and being able to relax and do your job –
not the job of an IT professional.

In the near future I’ll focus a bit more on how you’ll know
if you’re ready and what some deciding factors are. However, for now I just want to add a bit
more clarity so we’re all a little bit closer to finding the “silver lining” –
couldn’t resist, sorry.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Not to say that Outlook isn’t a great program, it has hands
down become the industry standard for email and the measuring stick that we use
when looking at other email software.
However, it’s just not a contact management system which is commonly
misunderstood.

When I’m at client sites, I’m quite often asked “why do I
need a CRM – we have Outlook which has a calendar and an address book?” While the argument could be made that Outlook
Business Contact Manager became a further attempt at making Outlook a CRM, it
was close, but I think of that product as more of a tease to get folks
interested in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

So, back to question at hand, what does a CRM give you that
Outlook does not?My take on it is two
major items:

The semblance of “who” and

The idea of whether something was completed or
not.

The idea of “who” your appointment, call, or activity was
with is not always as hard to accomplish in Outlook, but we’re relying on the
user to manually input that contact’s information.What’s lost though is the stream of
activities in a historical view where we can grab all that was done with a
particular client.This of course is the
main idea behind any function of a CRM system.Consider trying to find out all that has been accomplished with a
prospect, lead, or customer within Outlook?It just can’t be done without jumping through a number of hoops or
giving a call to Jane down the hall as to what she’s done recently with ABC
client.Messages are stored in various
email folders, and unless you were copied those emails, the private nature of
any email client will keep that information a little too close to the vest.

That being said, we can share calendars in Outlook (if in an
Exchange environment) which is one of its most endearing qualities. This item alone is a driving force behind
most companies making the giant leap from Outlook to Outlook Exchange. However, the idea of whether you have completed
all those items on your calendar is not available and thereby missing when it
comes to management’s needs for productivity reporting, or more importantly
seeing all the activities associated with the contact in question. It’s real easy for me to see what I have to
do next Tuesday on my Outlook calendar, and I can even share that out. However, on Wednesday only I know which of
those items were completed. This leaves
the rest of my team unable to know what I’ve been doing with Lead XYZ or ABC
Company. As I get older, I can tell you I’m
not sure I’ll be able to remember which of those items on last month’s calendar
were finished, leaving the whole company unaware of what’s been done.

It’s all about the information with any Contact
Manager/CRM system. The who, the what,
and the when. Outlook is great to help
us communicate internally and externally in an email driven market, but to get
the true picture of all client or prospect activities, a few quick entries in a
true CRM is all that’s needed to provide that needed communication within the
team.